Local Nortel employee says benefits could disappear when company is bankrupt

In advance of her employer’s pending bankruptcy, Josée Marin, a woman on disability amassing expensive medical bills, is worried she’s going to lose her insurance.

Marin is still considered a Nortel Networks employee and will be until late October when the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act bankruptcy proceedings end. However, she and 409 other employees on disability are worried they are going to lose their disability insurance since it’s paid for through their employment at Nortel. Furthermore, Marin said she isn’t sure when the insurance could be cut.
Marin said her long-term-disability insurance is also her pay replacement, which means if she loses it she will lose the bulk of her income and be left surviving on her $800-per-month Canadian Pension Plan payments.
“How am I supposed to survive on $800 per month when my medical bills are $764 on average and my student loan is $140?” Marin said.

“I am disabled and unable to work, I am uninsured and uninsurable. I see this big freaking wall in front of me and I’m heading right for it.”

For Marin, a lack of disability insurance would mean thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket medical expenses for her and her son.

Furthermore, she is worried that millions of Canadians could face a similar future if measures aren’t taken to protect workers without personal insurance.

“The rights of every single Canadian are at stake ... and the courts are looking elsewhere,” Marin said.

A recent protest at Parliament Hill saw Nortel employees attempting to get answers from their employers, who had been meeting with the federal government. But there were no answers.
Employees like Marin want to know who is at fault if the benefits lapse, why the government didn’t strengthen regulations surrounding disability insurance in the wake of Eaton’s collapse and, finally, what their future will be under new employers.
“We’ll do anything to get answers,” Marin said.

One looming concern is the fate of disabled workers if Nortel fell under new owners.
With parties like Ericsson already expressing interest, Marin is asking if benefits will be maintained and if employees would have rights to continued employment even though they can’t work.

“Do they have the right to dismiss us because we’re disabled?” she asked. Marin claims employees can’t be dismissed if they are on long-term disability, even when companies change hands through bankruptcy proceedings. However, the fate of Nortel’s disabled employees remains to be seen.
For now, Marin is disappointed employees weren’t better informed about the nature of their benefits.

“Nobody told us what was coming. We thought we were insured,” she said. “We could have chosen to be insured somewhere else.”
She said there doesn’t appear to be any solutions, and disabled employees aren’t being considered on the same level as shareholders.
“I am crying out loud for all 409 employees,” she said. “We are just going to fall through the cracks.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

A version of this article appeared in print on August 19. It incorrectly stated that Josée Marin had already lost her disability insurance. Marin is still being paid through her insurance. However, she believes her insurance could be cut at any time.